


The Invention of Rain

by Poetry



Series: Fem!Doctor [4]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Bechdel Test Pass, F/F, F/M, Female Doctor (Doctor Who), Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-19
Updated: 2010-09-19
Packaged: 2017-10-12 00:51:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/118992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetry/pseuds/Poetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rain is never just rain; thinking beings give it meaning. The Doctor, Jack, and Rose find their own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Invention of Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the OT3 hurt/comfort ficathon over at [betterwiththree](http://community.livejournal.com/betterwiththree/) to the prompt "last time." For those unfamiliar with this 'verse, the Doctor is female, always has been, but regenerates into a male Ten. There is also an established relationship between the Doctor, Jack, and Rose, and Jack isn't left behind at the Game Station.

They rarely visit a planet more than once, but they make an exception for Earth and for Elek Zhûr.

They're standing on a mountain looking out over the plains and jewel-bright terraces. Jack has folded a startlingly elaborate paper plane, and sends it flying over the precipice.

The Doctor's hand feels so different in hers. They had once been calloused, the fingernails cracked from TARDIS repairs gone awry. Now the hand is long, soft, and slender, with nails always well-groomed.

He says, "Remember what happened last time?"

Rose thinks of a time when the view from these mountains had been very different. "Yeah. I remember."

* * *

The fabric of Rose's dress floated on the air like wisps of fog. Its bluish-grey shade brought out the warmth in her eyes. Jack was clad in loose white cotton trousers, Roman-style sandals, and nothing else.

They were both very distracting. The Doctor gave up on trying to pre-program the coordinates for their next destination.

"Perfect," she said. "All set for the climate."

"What about you? Planning to swan about the desert in a leather jacket?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Doesn't bother me." She reached into her pocket and pulled out three bracelets that looked like they were made of platinum. She slipped one on her wrist and tossed the other two to Rose and Jack. "You're going to want these."

"You could've picked something that matched my outfit," Jack quipped, but put his on anyway.

"What are they?" Rose asked.

"Low-level perception filters." The Doctor went back to the task of setting coordinates. "Where we're going is a Level Three planet, they're nowhere near first contact yet. With those on, they'll see we don't look like them, but it won't bother them."

"Like when people on a 48th century spaceport see an antique police box and walk right past it," Jack put in.

"So I got all dressed up and no one'll notice," said Rose with a playful pout.

Jack leered at the generous expanses of leg the dress revealed. " _We'll_ notice."

"Need you at the console, Captain," the Doctor commanded, but there was a smile in her voice.

The ride through the Vortex felt _different_ with two pilots at the console. There was a push-and-pull that leveled out the TARDIS' movements. The Doctor moved, and Jack compensated. Rose, of course, was always ready with the mallet when the Doctor called for some percussive navigation, but she didn't know how to fly her. Neither did Jack, not truly, but he seemed to have an empathy for machines that went beyond just technical knowledge, and his rapport with the Doctor was such that they could exchange flight instructions with mere glances across the console.

The impact when the TARDIS landed wasn't jarring, as it had once been with only one pilot. It wasn't smooth either, but the vibrations that went up Rose's legs only increased the anticipation of seeing a new planet instead of sending her sprawling on the floor.

The Doctor was the first to the doors, of course. When she opened them, Rose braced herself for the blast of hot air that had to follow, but none came. Of course not – the TARDIS shielded them. Still, the sight beyond the doors made Rose very glad of her wardrobe choice. The landscape was stark and bare, with craggy rocks strewn around dunes that stretched for miles. Nestled in a valley nearby was a city in an oasis, full of narrow trees with spindly leaves that waved in the dry wind. Behind the trees was a stone brick wall that encircled the city, and beyond the wall were pueblos and temples piercing the horizon. Rose gave a breathless laugh of delight.

"Wait 'til you see the view from the city walls," the Doctor said.

Rose enjoyed the walk, but was glad they were only a few kilometers from the city. She had to take two long draughts from the Doctor's canteen before they reached the tree line. Jack had needed one, and the Doctor none at all – but then, she was wearing a leather jacket in this heat.

The scent of the trees was almost overwhelming after smelling nothing but sand and her own sweat. In the shade cast by the spindly leaves, there was a light crisp smell, like clothes left to dry on a clothesline in spring.

"Corleef trees," the Doctor explained. "The city's most important crop. The leaves are medicinal."

"Got a good story for the city guards?" Jack motioned to the guards standing watch at the gate.

When the Doctor had told them that the people of Elek Zhûr didn't look like them, she thought they might just be blue and a bit tall, or maybe have tails, like some of the humanoids they'd seen. They were nothing like that. They were more like kangaroos, but instead of fur they had hide that looked soft as brown suede. Their powerful legs ended in big flat hooves, and they had horns that curled like a ram's. They held shields that made them look very imposing, even though they were of a height with Rose.

The Doctor strode purposefully toward them. "They'll let us through. They're mostly there to guard against nocturnal predators. This watch looks out for any stragglers out during the day."

The guards brought their shields together so their edges were flush and the gates were completely inaccessible. "What brings these travelers across the sands to Keefal Zhê?" they asked in unison.

"We have heard of the fair sights within your city's walls, and have come to witness its beauty for ourselves," said the Doctor with ritual cadence.

"Then enter." The guards swung their shields apart, and a winch high above began to turn. The gates creaked inward, allowing them through.

The streets of Keefal Zhê were narrow and dusty, but the buildings rose between them like fingers of a great stone hand reaching out from the earth. High above, the people leapt from roof to roof on their long legs. Spires of pink glass rose from towers that could only be temples.

The Doctor tugged at Rose's hand. "This way to the watchtower. That's where you'll get the best view."

The stairs to the top of the watchtower were long and twisting, and the air scalded like freshly-brewed tea. By the time they neared the top, Rose was grunting and gasping a little with each step. Sweat glittered on Jack's bare chest, each muscle damp and shining. The Doctor, of course, was unaffected.

Rose stumbled out onto the parapet, gripping at Jack's arm for balance. Up here, the sky seemed like a pale reflection of the sand. Beyond the corleef trees loomed a grey mountain range, capped with blue-tinged snow. Above the peaks there brewed a bank of purple clouds. As she watched, she realized the clouds were slowly coming closer.

"The north pole is the only habitable part of the planet," the Doctor said. "Rest of it's too hot. It's completely surrounded by these mountains, like a collar 'round the top of the world. Creates a rainshadow effect. All the clouds dump their rain on the windward side of the mountain, leaving none for the poles. Hasn't rained here for thousands of years." She smiled. "Until today."

Rose watched the dim purple clouds crawl across the beige sky. They looked like long fingers reaching out from beyond the mountains. She tried to imagine what it would be like to have never seen clouds before, to have never felt the rain. "What are the people gonna do?" she wondered.

"As we speak, there are scholars in the high towers bickering over what the clouds mean. Where they came from. Everyone else looks at the sky and wonders. The temples are probably filling up about now." The Doctor's eyes hooded, as if she could see the scenario playing out behind her eyelids. "When the rain starts to fall, they won't know what to think. Literally. They haven't got a word for it in their language. Rain is never just rain. By itself, it's water falling from the sky. It's thinking beings that give it meaning."

"What do you mean?" Rose leaned against a battlement.

"Rain is totally new to these people," Jack explained, "so they don't have a cultural interpretation of it yet. Rain can mean a lot of things. In some cultures, it's the sweat that pours down from the gods when they fight. Or do other strenuous activities with each other." He winked. "In rainforest-dwelling species, rain is mundane. Just part of the scenery, like the ground and the sky."

"Wonder what they'll come up with, when they see it." A hot wind picked up from the mountains and started propelling the clouds closer. Down below, the narrow trunks of the corleefs bowed and swayed. Somewhere behind the walls, she could hear faint strains of lilting music.

Just then, one of the guards patrolling the parapet walked by. There was no way to know for sure, but Rose got the impression that this one was younger than the others. The guard looked up at the clouds. "You've been watching them for a while. What do you think they mean?"

"They mean things are gonna change around here." The Doctor peered at the guard. "Tell me. What would happen if a ton of water were to suddenly pour into the city?"

The guard blinked at her. "The buildings are not designed to hold back so much water. The undercity would fill up with water. It would be a disaster."

"Ah." The Doctor examined the guard with a fresh intensity. "What's your name?"

"K'fel."

"What's it look like when you heat water over a fire, K'fel?"

"Blue steam comes out of it, once it's hot enough."

"That's right. It's because there are tiny droplets of water in the air above the kettle. Now imagine you took lots and lots of those tiny water droplets, more than you've ever seen in your life, and put them up in the sky." The Doctor gestured upward at the dun-colored sky. "What d'you think it'd look like?"

K'fel's ears fell flat as the answer dawned on him. Rose wondered if anyone would listen to the Doctor's warning, but just now it was hard not to believe it. The very air seemed heavy, full of damp potential. "But madam," said K'fel, "this has never – "

"Just because it's never happened before doesn't mean it can't happen now. You've got to tell the captain of the guard, K'fel. Explain it just as I did to you."

"Madam, I am only a young recruit!"

"You chose to become a guard because you wanted to protect your city. Now's your moment."

The tip of K'fel's tail shook. For a moment Rose thought the Doctor's faith was misplaced in this frightened young guard. But then – "I will do my duty."

"Good." The Doctor set off toward the stairs, and gestured for Jack and Rose to follow.

"Where are you going, madam!?" The guard's ears were fully upright and quivering with indignation.

Jack flashed K'fel a smile. "To help you save the city."

"Come on, no time for chit-chat!" came the Doctor's voice from the stairwell.

"Good luck," said Jack, saluting the guard, and he dashed to keep up with the Doctor.

"The basements are in the most danger," the Doctor explained, as she flew down the stairs three at a bound. "They've got lots of underground storage where they store their crops to feed the city in leaner times. Can't let their food stores get wet. Also, young children spend most of their time during the day down there, since they haven't reached peak metabolic efficiency yet. There's a cooling mechanism in the horns that hasn't developed. So the children have got to get out first."

When they ran out of the watchtower, the sky was already dim, the clouds blotting out the bluish-white sun.

"What happens here, Doctor?" Jack watched her steadily. "Does the city survive, or do we have to watch it drown?"

"I wouldn't ask you to do that. 'M not that cruel." It was more than clear from the hollowness in the Doctor's expression that she had seen cities drown – too many. "After the rain, they're able to grow more crops than ever before, and the whole north pole becomes a cradle of great civilizations. Keefal Zhê produces the planet's greatest philosophers."

Jack's posture shifted, and Rose suddenly realized how worried he'd been. They could have been witness to a disaster so great that there'd be nothing they could do to stop it.

All around them, people were watching the sky. "It must be some strange sandstorm," declared what Rose guessed was a woman, with a baby clinging to her back. "Only sandstorms can block out the sun like that."

"It couldn't be," her companion insisted. "The air feels wrong for it. This is something new."

"It's like someone painted on the sky!" said the baby.

"Maybe we should get all the children to come outside," Jack said, entering the conversation smoothly, "so they can all see it. It's nice and cool out here; they'll be fine."

"Can we, kazha, please?" the baby pleaded. "I want Zh'kal and F'keela to see!"

"Hush. We'll talk to the caretakers. I'm sure they will agree." And the two companions and the baby passed by.

"I'd planned to run to all the caretakers and shout at them 'til they let out all the kids, but I suppose that'll do," the Doctor said.

Rose thumped her. "Shut up, that was brilliant. You're just miffed you didn't think of it first."

"Come on, we've got to get to the center of the city," said the Doctor, and Rose almost thumped her again for not thanking Jack, but she took him by the hand first, and that was thanks enough. "Keefal Zhê's shaped like a bowl, lowest point in the middle. All the water'll flow inward."

They passed a temple with a spire of pink glass that curled like a pig's tail, a vat full of corleef leaves drying in the sun, and deep wells where the people filled their buckets and watered their beasts of burden. Food sizzled over open fire pits, sending fragrant smoke through the streets.

By now the sky was completely dark. The rooftops were crowded with people craning their heads upward in wonder. From the temple there came a faint strain of song. The air seemed almost too heavy to be borne.

On the tip of her nose, Rose felt a raindrop.

Then the sky opened, and the rain fell blue, blue like the raindrops in children's paintings. Rose stopped and spread out her arms so she could feel it falling all along her skin. Behind her, Jack was laughing. All around them, people were hopping about in the rain and making little chirping sounds, but whether they were from fear or delight she couldn't be sure. Rose's dress was soaked through and clung to her like a second skin, and if they didn't hurry the city's entire underground would be drowned, but she couldn't hold back this feeling of exhilaration, of standing on ground which hadn't felt rain since long before the city had been raised out of the sand.

The Doctor took her gently by the wrist. "We have to keep moving," she said. Her hair was plastered wetly to her forehead, and her leather jacket shone with a blue patina. Her icy-pale eyes were nothing like the rain. Rose felt a stab of guilt for forgetting the children, and the underground granaries that would feed them for years to come if only they stayed dry.

In a low-walled plaza in front of an old building that was scoured and pockmarked by sand carried on the hot winds, fifteen city guards assembled. They were led by a guard half a head taller than Rose who carried a shield lined in shiny white metal.

"That'll be the captain of the guard," the Doctor said. "Looks like K'fel's done well. This is where they need to be." They ran toward the plaza as quickly as possible without slipping on the puddles and rain-slick stones.

As they got closer, Rose could see that the building was slowly sinking into the ground, like the water accumulating beneath was consuming it inch by inch. The guard captain took notice of them; it was hard not to, since they were the only ones running toward the building.

"Stay back, citizens," called the guard captain. "This building is unstable. Its lower levels will soon flood."

The Doctor didn't even pause. She stepped atop the low wall around the plaza, then leapt down to stand next to the captain of the guard. "We're not citizens. We're travelers, from beyond the High Sierra."

"Beyond the – " The captain stared at her. "The High Sierra is impassable!"

Rose clambered over the wall just in time to catch the Doctor's mad grin. "Well, they say it's impassable, but here we are. I'm the Doctor, and these two are Rose and Jack. We've seen this – " she said, gesturing to the soaking city, and the building succumbing to the rainfall. " – many times before."

The captain hesitated, then said, "I am F'zheela, captain of the Keefal Zhê City Watch. I am honored that you have come so far to see our city. You have come at a strange and chaotic time, when the spirits of the sky and of the wellsprings have conspired to bring us water as we have never seen it before."

"We want to help," Rose said. "We know what it's like." In more ways than one, she thought – not only did they know rain, but they knew what to do in moments like these. The moments upon which destinies turned – that was where they lived.

"We have teams all over the city evacuating the children from belowground. So far there have only been minor injuries. Our crop stores, though, are not yet safe. If we lose them all, we won't have enough for the next circling." Captain F'zheela pointed a short spear at the building. "This building was once municipal housing, now fallen into disrepair. Beneath it is the lowest point in the city, and a drain that opens to the aquifer. If we could open the drain, it would clear the entire undercity, but it is flooded over and thus beyond our reach."

Without preamble, the Doctor shucked off her leather jacket.

"What are you doing?" Rose demanded. She never took her jacket off in public.

"I'm going in."

" _What_?!"

"Just told you. I'm going in." Jack opened his mouth – to protest that he should go too, Rose knew him well enough – but the Doctor silenced him with a gesture. "None of the guards can swim. I can. Plus I've got a respiratory bypass system. I can hold my breath longer than you. 'S my job."

"How long?" demanded Jack.

The Doctor took off her boots, one at a time.

" _How long_?"

"Ten minutes at the outside."

"We'll go back to the TARDIS and get diving gear."

"No time."

"Then send a signal to my wrist strap nine minutes in, so we know you're safe."

"You don't need to rescue me, Jack Harkness."

The look on Jack's face almost made Rose burst into tears. Heedlessly, the Doctor dashed barefoot toward the building and heaved open the door to the basement. Beyond, a stairway led straight down into the rushing waters. She stood on the top step, extended her body in an elegant arch, and dove into the flood.

The guard captain stared at the place where the Doctor had been. Rose couldn't interpret facial expressions in this species, but she could guess that F'zheela's bristling cheek fur and dilated pupils showed utter disbelief. "What kind of person is this Doctor, who risks her life for a place she has never known?"

Rose felt the beginnings of tears mingling with the rain on her cheeks. Jack said, "This is what she lives for, Captain F'zheela. The places, the people. The danger. The rescue."

 _But will she let herself be rescued, if she has to be?_ Rose wondered. F'zheela tilted an ear, perhaps in puzzlement, then turned back to issue commands to the other guards. Rose took Jack by the hand and walked to the top of the stairs. They stood and listened to the water rush by. Both of them tried to think of something to say. The drumming of the rain on the rooftops filled the silence.

Jack loosened the drawstring on his trousers. The rain had glued them to his skin, so he had to peel them off like the skin of an orange. Naturally, he was wearing nothing underneath. He explained to Rose, "I need to be ready to dive in if she needs me."

"I should come too!" She started to unwrap her dress.

"No, Rose." Jack stilled her with a touch to the arm. "I can hold my breath longer than you – I've had my red blood cells altered. But you can still take off your dress if you want," he suggested, "to raise morale."

But Rose wasn't really listening. "If you have to bring her back, you'll be tired from having to support her weight. There's got to be a way to help." She paced back and forth and blinked the rain out of her eyes. "What if we got a really long rope, tied one end around your ankle, and I got a team of guards to help pull you back?"

Jack shook his head. "The rope could get caught on the rubble. That would only make it more unsafe."

"So just take it out with you as far as you think it's safe, and on the way back, you can grab onto the rope if you need to, and we'll haul you out the rest of the way."

"Good plan." Jack waved her off. "Go ahead. I'll wait here in case the Doctor needs me."

The thought of Jack waiting by those stairs that led down into dark water, standing alone in the rain to come to the Doctor's rescue, made her heart ache. But she turned away from him and spoke to F'zheela, who sent for a team of strong young guards and a long coil of rope. When the team arrived, K'fel was at the head of the line. Rose could identify the young recruit's wiry frame among the team of burly guards.

"She helped me do my duty," K'fel told Rose solemnly, "and now I will help her, for she does well by Keefal Zhê even though she owes no duty to the city. And so do you. You honor us."

"You're amazing," Rose said, "all of you. None of you have ever seen anything like this before, but you're not scared. You do your job."

"I think I ought to be scared," K'fel admitted, "but it is difficult to be frightened of something so beautiful."

They both looked up at the sky, squinting so the rain wouldn't get in their eyes. Beneath the purple clouds, a blue mist condensed into long streamers of water, changing the dusty streets to colors and textures never before known to Keefal Zhê: the particular kind of mud produced by beige sand and blue rain, the dark torrents that dripped from thatched awnings into widening puddles on each front porch. Children with stubby little horns were flinging mud at each other and laughing as if nothing had ever been so marvelous.

"Right now, I love my city more than I ever have."

Then came the words that Rose dreaded to hear: "Nine minutes!" Jack cried, and she knew before he spoke another word what the news would be. "No sign from the Doctor. I'm going in."

Rose kissed him, then, their faces both dripping. "I know you'll save her," she said, and passed him his end of the rope. K'fel held the other end and passed it down the line, all the way to the back where the guards were as wide and sturdy as their shields. Jack clenched the rope in his teeth, and she remembered a rose he'd once held there during one particularly memorable tango session, the thorns never cutting his lips. Then he plunged into the murky water and was gone.

Rose took position at the head of the line, her fists clasped around the rope. She, too, would pull her weight, and when they emerged from the basement level, her face would be the first one they'd see. The thought surfaced that their bodies might be hauled out unseeing, but she forced it to sink back down to where she didn't have to look. She tried to keep count of the seconds since Jack had gone in after the Doctor. Soon, too soon, the Doctor's time would run out. But it was impossible to keep the count, so all Rose could keep was her vigil.

The rope went taut.

She braced her feet against the muddy stones of the plaza and pulled. Back and back went the rope, each inch hard-won by straining muscle. Rose's strength was only a tiny fraction of the force dragging Jack and the Doctor out, but it felt good to fight for them in her own small way.

The waters broke, and the two of them lay on the steps, their death-grip on the rope finally loosening. Jack's arms were still tight around the Doctor's chest, his cheek pressed against hers. Though his muscles shook from the exertion of hauling her to safety, he summoned the strength to compress her just beneath the ribcage. Torrents of water spilled from her mouth, then finally she gasped a ragged breath.

Rose, K'fel, and two other guards rushed forward to help. The Doctor coughed up water, spluttered, and breathed again. She was shivering. Dread settled in the pit of Rose's stomach. The Doctor was never cold. She carefully pried Jack and the Doctor apart. After recovering his own breath, Jack let Rose support him up the rest of the stairs. He was freezing cold, but he didn't shiver half as much as the Doctor did. She was carried out by K'fel and the other guards. Rose could tell that Jack wanted to help them with the Doctor, and tightened her grip on his arm. When he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off. "Save your breath."

There was a stretcher waiting in the plaza, carried at each end by a strong guard. The Doctor was laid on the stretcher and covered with her own soaked jacket, but still her lungs spasmed and her body shook.

"We will take her to the temple and bring her the finest healers," said F'zheela. "They have fires burning against the chill."

"No," said Rose. "We've got to take her to our…" She'd been about to say "ship" but the word would mean nothing to a desert people.

"Our caravan," Jack rasped. She could hear how much it hurt him to speak.

Rose turned to the guards carrying the stretcher. "We'll show you the way. It's not far outside the city walls."

F'zheela looked horrified. "But the Doctor needs expert care!"

Rose felt a little ashamed. They hadn't even managed to save the granary, and yet they were being shown every kindness they could have asked for. "Thanks, but we have our own healing. The best way you can help us is to tell your guards to carry the Doctor where we're going."

"I wish to do well by you three. You were under no compulsion to risk your lives to help us, yet you did. If you wish to return to your land beyond the High Sierra, I will not begrudge you that. I hope you will speak well of Keefal Zhê wherever you go. I know we will speak well of you."

"Thank you, Captain," Jack croaked. He gave a wavering salute. F'zheela seemed to understand what he meant, and gave a salute in return, an elaborate gesture with tail and hoof.

K'fel bowed his head. "I wish you could have seen the city in kinder times. Perhaps you could come again one day, and see what is to come after…" He spread his arms wide, as if searching for a word for what was happening. "After the sky-falling."

"I would like to very much," said Rose. "I wish…" She looked up at the purple clouds and the blue rain. "I wish we could've helped. But I think you can sort out this sky-falling on your own." And she believed it, truly, but she didn't think she could convince the Doctor to return. Jack seemed very distant, as if his mind had already left this planet behind. In her head, she said farewell.

Rose followed the guards with their stretcher through the flooded city, arm in arm with Jack so he wouldn't wobble or slip. She could hardly bear to watch the Doctor as she quaked silently, her pale eyes blank and staring. Jack seemed to be in a fugue state, his mind withdrawn into a corner of himself where the cold and the damp couldn't reach. The trudge to the TARDIS across the blue-brown mud seemed to last for hours.

Behind the TARDIS, the mountains loomed like teeth in a great mouth exhaling storms. She turned the key in the lock, and the green-orange light of the TARDIS glowed against the muddy ground. The guards holding the stretcher were so startled they almost dropped it.

"'S okay," Rose said, with less than her usual conviction. "Just lay it on the grating right inside." They laid the stretcher gently on the TARDIS floor, then leapt back outside, thoroughly unnerved. Rose waved goodbye, then closed the doors.

She looked up at Jack. "You up to carrying the stretcher?"

"I think so." Wincing, he shifted his weight off Rose and onto his own feet. They each stood at one end and lifted the stretcher. They didn't have to carry it far; the first door beyond the console room opened to the sickbay.

They laid the stretcher on a frame that was just the right size to support it. Exhausted from having to exert himself again, Jack leaned back against the wall. Now that she was inside the TARDIS, the Doctor wasn't coughing anymore, but she shivered still. Her eyes were closed, for which Rose was grateful. She couldn't stand that empty stare. "I'll find a blanket," Jack offered. "You should take her temperature. Baseline's 25 degrees Celsius."

Rose nodded, and Jack disappeared into a storage closet set into the wall. She didn't know where the medical scanner was, but she found it when she opened a drawer at random. She gave it a pass over the Doctor's body from head to foot.

Jack came back from the storage closet with a thick pelt from some great beast Rose couldn't begin to imagine. It was huge, with dark lustrous fur. "What's it say?"

"22 degrees. Oxygen levels in her body are low but getting closer to normal. Now your turn." Jack looked like he was about to protest, but Rose gave him a stern look and waved the medical scanner over him. "35 degrees and muscle fatigue. Into bed with you." She turned around to see that the stretcher had been replaced with a bed ample enough for the three of them. Jack smiled and blew a kiss to the coral-arched ceiling. "Go on, then," said Rose, and he settled into bed next to the Doctor.

"I'd better get her out of these wet clothes," she muttered.

"I'll never say no to that suggestion," said Jack, but there was no real humor in it. He watched Rose peel off the Doctor's jumper, jeans, bra, and knickers, all drenched through.

She settled on the other side of the Doctor and threw the pelt over all three of them. The lights in the sickbay dimmed, and the air warmed. The Doctor felt like a statue carved of ice. Rose fought the urge to flinch away, and buried her face in the crook of the Doctor's arm, as was her custom. The Time Lady's breath was ragged, but strong. Its rhythm lulled Rose to sleep.

It seemed as if she'd only closed her eyes for a moment when she felt her lover stir beside her. As Rose woke, she noticed to her relief that the Doctor's skin only felt a little cooler than normal. She gave a little cry of protest, though, when she realized the Doctor was trying to get out of bed.

"Hang on, Doctor, you should stay here!" Rose tugged at her arms, trying to keep her down.

"Can't stay here. I hate sleeping in the sickbay. Reminds me of hospital stays." The Doctor's voice was only a little hoarse, but Rose could hear the exhaustion in it.

"Fine," Jack said from the Doctor's other side. "We'll help you out of sickbay."

"Don't need help," the Doctor grunted. She tried to sit up, but Jack pinned her shoulders to the bed.

"Yes you do." Jack's eyes were locked with hers. "This time, Doc, we rescued you. You needed to be saved. So _let_ us."

"I'm not your responsibility," the Doctor argued. "I've been taking care of myself for centuries; I can make it out of this room without all your fussing."

"Just because you _can_ be alone," Jack said softly, "doesn't mean you _should_." For a moment Rose thought of the war, and what it was like for the Doctor be alone, afterward. It was too terrible to imagine. Jack would know, she thought. He'd been alone for too long, and look what he'd become. He'd forgotten his own courage.

"Jack, you could have died down there!"

"Don't you tell me I can't put my life on the line for you." Jack's voice was ragged. "It's for me to decide whether it's worth the sacrifice."

The Doctor's tensed shoulders went slack, and she let out a long, shuddering breath, as if Jack's words had caused her pain; still, she cooperated when Rose and Jack gently eased her out of bed and into the corridor. By silent agreement, they steered the Doctor toward their shared bedroom. As soon as she noticed where they were headed, she dug her heels into the TARDIS floor and shook her head. "I'm not going to sleep again. Humans, you'll sleep your lives away. Not me."

"Doctor, you're exhausted." Rose and Jack were supporting half her weight between them. But then she looked at the Doctor's face, really saw. Her blue eyes were limned with nightmares. No, she couldn't sleep. Not yet.

Jack saw too. "There's a dance I wanted to show Rose. If you have a room where we can try it out, you can sit and watch."

The Doctor's lips moved, silently. The corridors distorted around them without ever seeming to change. A door was.

Rose pressed her fingertips to the door, felt it swing inward. There was an overstuffed leather armchair just inside. With Jack at her arms and Rose at her legs, they draped the Doctor's long, pale form across it. Only when she insisted for the tenth time that she was comfortable, thanks, did Rose turn her attention to the rest of the room.

The dance floor was lit by hazy lavender light that seemed to come from the walls themselves. All around it were turntables, jukeboxes, phonographs, stereos, and other music players she couldn't begin to fathom. There were also cabinets full of 8-tracks, records, cassettes, CDs, and more. Jack selected a disc the size of his thumbnail and placed it in a dip on top of a black boomerang-shaped thing slung low to the floor. The thing began to hum.

"This is tek'wa beat," Jack said, gathering her in his arms. "It's one of the few recordings from the Boeshane Peninsula."

Rose had never heard music like this before. At first, it sounded like all percussion, a dozen different ringing, clanging, thumping things, but there was also a bass twanging, so low as to be more felt than heard. That vibration pulled her along, brought her closer to Jack with every step. The rhythm grew subtly faster, and they both began to sweat. He was still worn out from his desperate swim to safety, and he missed a beat from time to time; when he did, Rose compensated, holding him steady until he was ready to keep pace again.

"May I cut in?" came the Doctor's voice, startlingly close to Rose's ear.

She started. "Doctor, shouldn't you be rest– "

"No. I want… this." Rose pulled away from Jack and looked up at the Doctor. I need this, her eyes said. Rose had never seen her laid bare quite this way. She realized, suddenly, how intimate it was, what Jack had done for her. Rose had rescued her before, plenty of times (she remembered how the chain felt in her hands as she swung to the Doctor's rescue) but Jack had hauled her out, dragging her bodily to air and life as she lost all thought from lack of oxygen. Oh, Rose had helped, but she hadn't been the one to dive in after her. Somehow, in her strange quiet way, the Doctor needed to thank Jack for what he'd done. How long had it been since the Doctor had thought of herself as someone worth saving at all?

Jack shifted his stance, moving his hands to the Doctor's shoulders and letting his body go pliant so he could be led. But the Doctor clasped Jack's hands in her own and slid them off her shoulders. She laced her fingers behind Jack's neck and tilted his head forward so their foreheads touched. "No," she whispered. "This time, I'll follow."

Rose put her hand to her mouth. Jack gave a little gasp. The Doctor never followed. They both knew this. She led the dance, and they were always carried in her wake. But now, she gave herself over to Jack's guidance, and let herself be swept into the dance.

A new song started. A sound like the crash of surf against cliffs began, then a jangling sound like a dancer bedecked in a thousand tiny bells. The bass twanged, and Jack led the Doctor as if she were blind and deaf, and only he could help her understand what it was to dance.

Rose wasn't afraid to tell them that she loved them. There had been nights when the doors of the TARDIS were open to the sight of galaxies falling toward each other, spiral arms entwining, and they'd kissed in the light of stars coming together that had never before touched. It had been easy then. The words came to her lips like prayer.

It was different for them. Jack's love hardly needed to be spoken. He sweated and breathed and danced "I love you," his body a temple dedicated to them. She could see it now so clearly, in the way he needed only the lightest of touches to steer the Doctor along, the way his movements always corresponded to hers.

The Doctor guarded her love like a flame against the wind. Maybe she thought that if she allowed it to shine through as more than a faint glow, it'd be snuffed out. Loving didn't come easily to her, not like it did to Jack. But in moments like these, when her defenses were stripped away, it illuminated her face like a sunbeam through distant clouds.

When the dance ended, Jack and the Doctor kissed like the universe was an ocean, and they were drowning in it together. Rose stood, and she felt the world that was Jack-and-the-Doctor expand to include her. The Doctor was holding onto Jack's shoulders, white-knuckled, just to stay upright. Rose came up behind and wrapped her arms around the Doctor. She pressed her lips to the Doctor's temple. "We'll save you," she murmured in her ear. "No matter what. We'll always save you."

* * *

Jack watches the paper plane glide away.

When he was a boy, all the children knew how to fold paper planes so intricate it was a wonder their little fingers could manage it. He had never been good at it, but this plane flew straight and true. Overhead, dim purple clouds creep towards a city that no longer has walls.

He turns away from the precipice. A moment passes when he thinks, _why is that stranger holding Rose's hand?_ but it flees quicker than it ever has before. He's adjusting. They're all adjusting.

"You were right," he says to the stranger who isn't. "They didn't starve after all."

"They planted new crops after the flood," the Doctor says. "There was another sky-falling, and another. They got rid of old traditions and replaced them with new. And look at them now." He grins, the smile coming more easily than his previous self's ever had. The joy always used to catch her unawares, when her guard was down, and she couldn't stop the smile from slipping through. This one dawns almost lazily across his handsome face.

Down below, the clouds form a purple halo around the glittering glass spires of Keefal Zhê. A cool breeze flutters through the corleef trees.

"Have we got any books on the culture of the city?" Rose asks.

"I think there's one in the library somewhere, yeah."

"Could you bring it outside?" Rose glances up at the clouds. "I want to know what it has to say about rain."

The Doctor looks startled, but he goes into the TARDIS without comment. Jack quirks his eyebrows at Rose.

"I just – I want to know. Everything's changed so much," she says, and Jack knows she's talking about more than just the landscape of Elek Zhûr.

The Doctor comes back with an e-reader that Jack doesn't recognize; it looks like a flexible, transparent sheet of plastic with glowing green words that shift with each touch of the Doctor's fingertips. "Got it!" he announces, holding it up so Rose and Jack can see, and begins to read aloud.

"Every time it rains, there is a turning point. With rain can come prosperity or calamity; it both livens the soil and takes away the sun. It is also said that rain is a time for heroes who can guide us through the great changes rain can bring. In the time of the First Storms there came the Khûret-Eeloh – that means 'Guardians of the Rain,' more or less – whose faces everyone saw but no one could remember. The Guardians of the Rain can be anyone who is called to lead in a time of rain, for like the rain, heroes can have many faces."

Then the clouds open, the rain comes down dark and blue, and the three of them could have any faces at all, and it wouldn't matter.


End file.
